Matt Fraction

The day jobs of most aspiring comic book writers tend to involve things like ringing up titles at the local comic shop or captaining the couch in their parents’ basement. But for Matt Fraction, the scribe behind Marvel’s Punisher War Journal and Immortal Iron Fist, the 9-to-5 grind before his comic glory was a little different. As cofounder of the design studio MK12, Fraction, 31, spent his midtwenties traveling the globe helping to make music videos for artists from Common (“Go”) to Hot Hot Heat (“No, Not Now”). “I might have wanted it, but I didn’t need it,” says Fraction of his comic book ambitions. “If I wasn’t interested in a pitch, I could say, ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna go work with Kanye West.’”

A lifelong fanboy, Fraction composed his first story, Rex Mantooth: Kick; Splode; Robot, in 2006 while still at MK12. Now a full-time comics writer, he splits his time between penning mainstream superhero titles (The Sensational Spider-Man Annual) and independent books (The Last of the Independents). “Comics are an escapist medium,” he says of his commercial/underground balancing act. “But that doesn’t mean that it has to be stupid or done on autopilot.”

Fraction puts his indie-mainstream mashup to the test with his latest project, the creator-owned Casanova, his first original series. “It’s about a space-traveling, sexually omnivorous, horrendous, violent thief,” he explains. “It’ll either make my career or end it. There’s a lot of me in that book, in just weird, strange ways. If you like that, great. And if not, there’s boobs.”